Wednesday, December 31, 2014

It's the exciting and long awaited Dat Be Nice Link Party number 4 1/2!!!!

Actually, it turns out that last Dat Be Nice party fell on Christmas, and this one should fall on New Year's Day. Add to that that I'll be relatively internet-less and that Blogger's scheduling system is doing its best to thwart me, and I figured the best thing to do would be to cry uncle.

So I'm going to combine last week's party with this week's party, pin anyone who links up but wait to do combined features NEXT week. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Last week in the comment section of Dat Be Nice #3, my old blogging friend Mark asked me, "What are you doing?" And I thought about that for a good, long while.

The simple answer is that the link up party website had a sale, and I have a hard time passing up a bargain when it's been something I've been considering anyway.

The long answer is this:

I've gotten to know a ton of people in the blogging world over the past almost-decade. But most of my oldest blogging friends are no longer around for one reason or another.

Blogs have niches. For my own blog reading, my only real prerequisites are that a blogger is either funny OR nice. I don't even come close to requesting both. And for whatever reason, my old "niche" tended toward expats living in places far, far away.

But SJ moved to Facebook and Instagram. Ms. Q dropped off of the face of the blogging earth. A Free Man stopped blogging. Who even knows what happened to Total Spender? If even an 1/8th of his blog posts were true, he's probably in jail or dead.

Oren. What can I say about Oren? Except that we should all still be helping him break the internet with this post.

Once I got pregnant with She-Who-Destroys-All-In-Her-Path, I ended up meeting a lot of blogging moms. Some of them are funny and all of them are nice, and some of them are even funny AND nice.

But I thought with my very own link party, I could attract stuff I enjoy in real life: healthy food/health/diet/exercise stuff, photography/art/DIY/Crafts/basically anything with a glue gun, education/learning/children/books, and humor (of course)

In all honesty, an entire link party all on my own is probably going to end up to be more internets than I can really handle. I don't want to do it if I can't do right by people who take the time to come by. Still, I got the service, so I'm going to give it a try for a few more weeks and see how it goes.

Mark, if you are still reading, I offer you a picture of my kid licking a beer bottle. Because.

And if you are not still reading...what can I really do? It's on to the link party, at least for the time being.

This week (and particularly because my party day falls on Christmas - Merry Christmas all!), I'm not going to really worry about "rules".

What would I do to enforce them anyway? If you like it around here, I'm thinking you'll probably follow and if you don't, you probably won't be back much whether you follow or not.

I really loved Menucha's post on naptime tips, mostly because I got to read about babies who ACTUALLY SLEEP, rather than spending the entire sleep time asking for feet to be tucked back in or the CD to be turned louder, softer, on or off. Plus, look at these cutsey little fingers!

And, if you're featured, here's a button. One day I'll make a prettier one:

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour and...it's supposed to stay on through the dishwasher and everything. Who knows if it really does or not, but it looks pretty though, don't you think? We're going to put gift cards inside.

Our next teacher gift which I will hopefully not ruin the surprise by posting here are gift jars:

We filled it with white tulle and this DELICIOUS chocolate (another affiliate link). Not only is it incredibly yummy, but it's 70% dark. That means it's ALMOST DIET FOOD!!!! Or at least it qualifies for the South Beach Diet. Maybe Atkins too, who knows?

Most pinned was this delicious looking recipe for Pistachio Kiss Pudding Cookies. Don't they look delish?!?! Get the recipe at Yesterfood!

I think this recipe wins the prize for the healthiest link up! Not only does it look like yum, but I can pronounce every last ingredient, so that's always a plus in my book! Plus, Spanakorizo is something I never heard of from somewhere far away! See the whole recipe here on Mommy's Kitchen!

Now on to the PARTY!!!!!!Here are the social (media) niceties that will help this party feel more like there's drinking involved:

Please follow me somewhere: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Google+. Or everywhere. Because, you know, it's kind of hard to take over the entire internets when no one is following you anywhere.

Grab one of these buttons! Or feel free to link to the party in a text link...either way, dat be nice!

Visiting other posts in the hop is always nice!

In return I am going to pin like crazy, and I will feature three that are related to:

Healthy recipes that I would feed my own family, including but not limited to Vegetarian, Paleo, Weight Watchers, and Gluten Free.

Photography/Photography Tips/Wordless Wednesday

Kids/Education

DIY/Crafting

Books and Reading (especially Children's Picture books)

And if I feature your post, please feel free to grab a button! Or not. It's really up to you.

The fine print stuff:

This is a relatively family friendly zone. I don't mind a few curse words, but I reserve the right to draw the line at my whim. If there's devil worship or what I consider too much nakedness, I might not feature or pin.

By linking, you are giving me permission to use one of the photos in your post as a feature.

Please link directly to your post, not your homepage! Otherwise, who even knows what to look for?

By linking up, you are giving me permission to email you and remind you to link up next week. If I ever figure out how to do that. But don’t depend on me! Just stop by next week!

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

It happens that several people I know over the internet have expressed an interest in learning more about Chanukah. There's a LOT to know out there, and I certainly don't claim to know much. But here's a little bit about a little bit of it!

1) What's the deal with the spelling (or lack thereof?)

Chanukah is a Hebrew and/or Yiddish word. That means the word is spelled with letters that are not in English. Some people have preferred spellings, but as far as a "correct" spelling goes...it depends who you ask. I like to spell it as many ways as I can in a single document, both as a personal challenge and because I have a better chance of finding it with a search if I cover my bases.

Saturday, December 06, 2014

For those beating down the door to see pictures of how the kitchen renovation is going...you're time has come at last!

"Isn't it driving you crazy?"

Why yes, yes it is. It IS driving us crazy to have a cement floor since last May.

But it will all be worth it!!!!!

Because I took THIS photo the other day using ISO 400 at night! Indoors! And with NO other light except the ones that my Partner in Crime put in!!!! On my D5000, which is like...unheard of!

The excellent indoor lighting means that what does or doesn't happen with the floor or the cabinets or the flies and wasps that are making their way in due to the gaping holes in the walls doesn't seem nearly as bad...

As long as I can figure out how to use the fancy light switches my Partner in Crime installed.

It turns out that those cute little things I thought were paint pots at first glance were like the donut holes of the construction world.

Here's a spot where my Partner in Crime had to put one of those little holes back into the ceiling. Because it turns out that you can't install ceiling lighting directly into a vent:

And so now we are still traipsing to and from the fridge day in and day out on bare cement, but it is VERY well lit bare cement! I have never been so pleased with bare cement in all my life!

Despite the fact that having giant holes in the walls and ceiling is GREAT for calling your almost 17 year old downstairs with the handle of a broom or mop (whatever it does or doesn't do for insect control), my Partner in Crime continues to slave away to get us some semblance of walls and ceilings back together:

All in all, there was only one remaining problem with the bare cement. With the wall removed, it was next to impossible to keep That-Cat-I-Never-Talk-About from using it as a giant litter box. So we confined him to our bathroom.

It's weird, but he kind of loves it there. He's got his own cozy little spot under the sink, and he has visiting hours from from the Pain-in-the-Neck-Cat-Who-Thinks-He's-a-Human. Or dog.

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

When Inlinkz had a Black Friday sale on link party codes and stuff I thought, "Why not pick up a little something nice for myself?"

Have I ever mentioned that I'm impulsive?

So, here it is. The first ever "Dat Be Nice" link party. Usually parties don't have actual rules. There more like social niceties.

But either way, let's be nice:

Please follow me somewhere: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Google+. Or everywhere. Because, you know, it's kind of hard to take over the entire internets when no one is following you anywhere.

Grab one of these buttons! Or feel free to link to the party in a text link...either way, dat be nice!

Visiting other posts in the hop is always nice!

In return I am going to pin like crazy, and I will feature three that are related to:

Healthy recipes that I would feed my own family, including but not limited to Vegetarian, Paleo, Weight Watchers, and Gluten Free.

Photography/Photography Tips/Wordless Wednesday

Kids/Education

DIY/Crafting

Books and Reading (especially Children's Picture books)

And if I feature your post, please feel free to grab a button! Or not. It's really up to you.

The fine print stuff:

This is a relatively family friendly zone. I don't mind a few curse words, but I reserve the right to draw the line at my whim. If there's devil worship or what I consider too much nakedness, I might not feature or pin.

By linking, you are giving me permission to use one of the photos in your post as a feature.

Please link directly to your post, not your homepage! Otherwise, who even knows what to look for?

By linking up, you are giving me permission to email you and remind you to link up next week. If I ever figure out how to do that. But don’t depend on me! Just stop by next week!